Mexican cuisine in Mexico is hugely regional, from the fried fish tacos of Baja to the mole sauces of Oaxaca. Add in the Mexican diaspora in the United States, and you’ve got everything from the makeshift breakfast tacos of Austin’s food trucks to the loaded burritos of Chipotle. How to make sense of this enormous range of options, let alone find recipes that don’t suck?

To master the building blocks of authentic Mexican food, we asked the experts to pick the best recipes they’ve found in years of cooking the country’s cuisine. We’re talking homemade corn tortillas and pinto beans from scratch, salsas every which way, carnitas, guacamole, and more. But that doesn’t mean we excluded great recipes for more new-fangled cooking, fresh takes on old favorites, or dishes with a hint of Tex Mex.

Our experts—food bloggers, entrepreneurs from Mexico, TV hosts, and devoted eaters—picked out the condiments, main dishes, and even desserts you need to know to make the best Mexican food at home. Whether your goal is an all-day mole or a simple taco, you’ll find a sure-fire version of that dish here.

Don’t stress yourself out with bad instructions for making guacamole or think about making margaritas from a mix. Instead, scroll through to model your dinner after the cuisine of our Mexican experts:

Frijoles de la olla

Best recipe:Muy Bueno CookbookAdriana Martin says: Pinto beans cooked from scratch are the base for many Mexican dishes, and an important side dish served to accompany many Mexican dishes, especially those that are very spicy. This recipe from the Muy Bueno Cookbook shows the true tradition, how Mexican cooks prepare beans from scratch using fresh products that can always be found at home.

Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce

Best Recipe:The Other Side of the TortillaPati Jinch says: I really like Maura Hernandez, her blog, stories, and recipes. This recipe is for meatballs in a tomato and chipotle sauce, which is a very common everyday meal in Mexico that I grew up eating. It’s homey, tasty, and filling.

Salsa Mexicana

Best Recipe: Aromas and SaboresPati Jinch says: This basic staple that can be used in a thousand things, like most salsas. This one, from Heidi Leon Monges, evokes her view on life, of which food is a huge part. A fellow Mexican who lives outside of her country, she seems to be as nostalgic as me about it.

Classic Margarita

Best Recipe:Chef Julian Medina of ZócaloAlfonso Pacheco says: Due to the overwhelming abundance and use of terrible and sugary pre-made mixes, the Margarita has become a bit of a misunderstood creature. Having grown up in Mexico, it saddens me to see it in such a state. It's like running into your high school valedictorian at McDonald's 20 years later and they're on the other side of the counter. When done right, the Margarita is amazingly refreshing and crisp. Julian Medina has got it down with this recipe. The trick is to use fresh squeezed limes and a good orange liquer. Add a splash of soda water and some muddled jalapeños if you really want to kick it up a notch. Oh yeah, and forget the blender, real margs are best enjoyed on the rocks.

Carnitas

Best Recipe: Diana Kennedy via Food52Cara Eisenpress says: Fatty pork butt doesn’t need a lot of fussing to become a main dish worthy of your taco. In fact, all it really needs are water, salt, and an oven to become crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside, best-you’ve-ever-had carnitas. This recipe will make your oven a mess, but its technique shows you how simple Mexican cooking can be.

Salsa Verde

Best Recipe: What's Cooking MexicoAdriana Martin says: This sauce is drizzled in tacos, flautas, tostadas, and sopes, and it’s the base for enchiladas, chicharron en salsa verde, pork and verdolagas, chilaquiles and carne asada. This recipe brings back the use of pre-Hispanic ingredients like xoconostle, a cactus pear with a sour flavor, that complements the spicy sauce. It is a celebration of the Mexico heritage and it's legendary culinary traditions.

Pozole

Best Recipe: Mexico in my KitchenAdriana Martin Says: This dish is a celebratory one with a lot of history and dates from the pre-Hispanic times. Pozole in the Nahuatl language is "pozolli" which means “foam”—this name was given because when the corn kernels are cooked they open like white flowers and generate foam when boiled. Pozole is served in many Mexican states but the most famous recipes are those from Jalisco, Michoacán, Tepic, Colima, Guanajuato, and Guerrero. Each state has its own interpretation and ingredients that is why we find pozoles to be white, green and red. I chose this recipe because it explains step by step the process and does it just like my family was used to prepare it at home.

Enmoladas

Best Recipe:Food.comAlfonso Pacheco says: Anyone who is serious about Mexican food needs to fold a good mole recipe into their repertoire. Personally, my favorite way to consume it is rolled up in tortillas and smothered in cheese. Often confused with the ubiquitous "enchilada", "enmoladas" add a level of seriousness and authenticity to Mexican cuisine here in the U.S. Cooking up a batch is a sure fire way to impress your guests and show them just how up to snuff you really are. This recipe is great because it is the perfect compromise between using mole that is pre-made and making one from scratch. Best served with a side of cilantro rice and an ice cold margarita.

Carne Asada

Best Recipe: No RecipesCara Eisenpress says: Carne asada is a Northern Mexican specialty, featuring a thin cut of steak that’s been marinated and then grilled. Often, the meat is then chopped up and served inside tacos or burritos. Because this is such a flexible dish, I chose the version from No Recipes, which gives you a genius tip for using kiwis in the marinade to tenderize the meat.

Flour Tortillas

Best Recipe:The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill JamisonCara Eisenpress: There’s a time for corn tortillas, and there’s a time for the satisfying, chewy flour tortilla too. Lisa Fain of the Homesick Texan searched long and hard before coming upon this perfect recipe for homemade flour tortillas.

Breakfast Burritos

Best Recipe: Sprouted KitchenKathryne Taylor says: I am obsessed with eggs and salsa in any form. Breakfast burritos are a classic combination of eggs, salsa and other fresh add-ins, rolled up in a tortilla. Sprouted Kitchen's version seems pretty perfect to me

Homemade Chorizo

Best Recipe: Always Order DessertCara Eisenpress: Mexican chorizo is fresh, less salty, and more sweet than the cured Spanish kind. In this recipe—which is slightly involved—you spice ground pork with ancho chilies, ground cumin, and ground coriander, among others, and then fry it up to serve with eggs or as a taco filling.

Mole

Best Recipe: Suestyle.comCara Eisenpress says: I took a class in Oaxaca with Susanna Trilling, and we made a few different mole sauces. This one, which includes many steps and takes a while, represents one kind of mole popular in Oaxaca. It’s rich, sweet, spicy, and mysterious.

Enchiladas Verdes or Rojas

Best Recipe: Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack of Muy Bueno Cookbook via The KitchnCara Eisenpress: This is a very traditional dish, and depending on the Mexican state you are from, you’ll make a specific kind enchilads. For example, there are enchiladas potosinas from the state of San Luis Potosi made with a rich red sauce, requeson (crumbled cream cheese), chopped onions and corn tortillas. At Mexico DF you can enjoy enchiladas suizas made like a lasagna style, and baked inside the oven. In Puebla enchiladas Poblanas with a sauce made with poblano chiles, roasted corn and cream. I chose a recipe from TheKichn since they follow traditional techniques such as the roasting of the chiles, using suero de sal, asadero cheese and serving in a clay dish.

Chilled Shrimp Tacos

Best Recipe: Rick BaylessAlfonso Pacheco says: Rick Bayless is one of my favorite "Mexican-inspired" American Chefs. He spent years living in Mexico and traveling around to different areas of the country to really dig deep and understand its various regional cuisines. The guy knows his stuff and brings a level of authenticity to everything he cooks. You can tell by simply looking at any of his recipes. Most of them require some serious ingredients. This particular one is the perfect combination of "straightforward" and "delicious". Its light, refreshing, and an excellent way to balance a meat or veggie-heavy meal!

Vegetarian Tacos

Best Recipe: Naturally EllaKathryne Taylor says: Not all tacos are created equal. I'm partial to soft tacos made with super fresh and vibrant fillings, like these roasted vegetable tacos by Naturally Ella. They look like a fiesta on a plate.

Paletas

Best Recipe:Fany Gerson via TheKitchnCara Eisenpress says:Fany Gerson runs a paleta cart in New York City, and her book, Paletas, is filled with incredible interpretations of the Mexican version of popsicles, which tend to be flavored with one intense ingredient, like the lime in this recipe.

Horchata

Best Recipe:Cookie & KateCara Eisenpress says: This drink is sweet and creamy—but not too much of either. Mainly, it’s cold and refreshing for a summer day. Though it’s served all around Latin America in various forms, the Mexican version is usually made with soaked rice, which is then blended to a smooth, creamy drink and flavored with cinnamon.

Mexican Style Rice (Arroz Rojo)

Best Recipe:The Culinary Institute of America Adriana Martin says: This rice is served as a side dish to complement many dishes, like pork adobo, added to chicken soup, enjoyed with plantains or slices of fresh bananas, with a sunny side egg on top o with a scoop of guacamole. The recipe I chose is from the Culinary Institute of America as they follow the process my mom and my grandmother used to prepare this simple but difficult dish

Avocado and Hearts of Palm Chop Chop Salad

Best Recipe:Pati JinichCara Eisenpress says:This recipe helps you remember that Mexican food isn’t necessarily greasy or cheesy. In fact, it can be pretty darn fresh. In this recipes for a lettuce-less salad, the ingredients complement each other perfectly.

Flan

Best Recipe: Rick BaylessCara Eisenpress says: Rick Bayless is one of the brilliant chefs responsible for introducing authentic Mexican food to the modern American palate. His recipe is detailed so that the caramel on the flan comes out right every time.

Corn Tortillas

Best Recipe: Jessamyn Waldman via Food and WineCara Eisenpress says: The homemade corn tortillas from Hot Bread Kitchen could turn the simplest taco filling into a satisfying breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They share their recipe here, which relies on masa harina, a pre-cooked corn flour that sticks together without any other ingredients.

Queso Fundido

Best Recipe:The Other Side of the TortillaCara Eisenpress says: The melted cheese sauce is something of a guilty pleasure for many. In truth, it’s just a super simple recipe that’s like a deconstructed quesadilla. You melt cheese and dip tortillas into it.

Tostadas

Best Recipe: Not Without SaltKathryne Taylor: Tostadas are crispy, round corn tortillas topped with fresh flavors. I'm not sure I could find lime-marinated kale and black bean tostadas like Not Without Salt's in Mexico, but they are my absolute favorite.

Guacamole

Best Recipe:Food and WineCara Eisenpress says: Everyone makes guacamole these days, and most versions are pretty good. What Richard Sandoval gets right in this recipe is the texture—it’s not smooth. The big chunks of avocado are easily the best part.

Latest News

Now Trending

FIRST WE FEAST participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means FIRST WE FEAST gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive.